Parker T. Williamson
editor-in-chief
Presbyterians are speaking the unspeakable. From many parts of
the world comes the diagnosis: The body is broken. A once vigorous
denomination, whose missionaries midwifed burgeoning churches in Africa,
Latin America and Asia, is being shattered. Presbyterians in Pittsburgh,
Nairobi, Belo Horizonte, Cairo and Seoul are asking how they can “continue
in fellowship” with other Presbyterians who will not believe and
refuse to obey the Word of God.
How can this be? After all, aren’t we the denomination whose
confessions call for connections?
How can it
not be?
Once held together by Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, who meets
us in the Word of God written, we were known as people of the Word. But
Presbyterians in high places have separated the Word incarnate from the
Word written. They have made Jesus Christ a mere “christ-concept,”
an ethereal mascot for their own, ill-conceived and hopelessly human
ideologies. His miracles having been denied and his teaching debunked,
this impotent “christ” bears no resemblance to the Triune God.
And what has been done with the Word of God written? The American
Psychological and Political Science associations are accorded greater
authority than Scripture when denominational advisory groups counsel our
members in matters of personal and corporate behavior. Talking heads
have replaced the truth in our moral discourse, and we are the poorer
for that substitution.
Once held together by polity, Presbyterians respected constitutional
authority. Now, sessions, presbyteries and synod courts rule that people
can ignore portions of the constitution that are not to their liking.
Postmodern Presbyterians – aided and abetted by a General Assembly
stated clerk who will not defend the constitution against its assailants
– assign their own meanings to the text.
For Christians, real estate is hardly the tie that binds. The
Presbyterian Church of East Africa is telling us that it doesn’t
want any of the dollars pledged to it by National Capital Presbytery.
Although they are in great need, they would rather forfeit U.S.
Presbyterians’ money than their own integrity. Presbyterians in the
United States have been leaving our denomination in large numbers for
years. Now, entire congregations are beginning to go. Told by their
presbyteries that they cannot take their property with them, some are
willing to pay the price.
Others are on the edge, just waiting for a precipitating event.
Jesus said, “This is my body, broken for you.” He could also
have said, “This is my body broken
by you.” Our
unfaithfulness is responsible for the fractures that have torn us
asunder.
As commissioners to the 216th General Assembly gather in Richmond, let
us pray that they will attend to the plight of this shattered communion.
May they hear the voices of our African brothers and sisters, a
congregation in Pittsburgh, and thousands of Christians who have been
driven into exile by our pursuit of a compromised faith.
One assembly cannot knit these broken bones. But that’s where “This
is my body, broken for you” enters the picture. Jesus Christ is,
after all, the divine physician, and by his stripes, we can be healed.
There is still a chance for wholeness in the Presbyterian Church (USA)
if the 216th General Assembly will repent, turn to the Lord Jesus and
choose leaders who obey God’s Word.
A column by Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of the
Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications.